Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says that Israel can finally emerge from the coronavirus crisis if the last 570,000 citizens over the age of 50 who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus do so quickly.
“That is where the fatalities are, nearly 100 percent, that’s where the seriously ill are, nearly 100%,” he says in an interview with Channel 12 News. “When they go to the hospitals they block them for others, so the young start to get ill and some die."
When asked if there could be yet another lockdown, he says: "It depends on the public. I believe that if the citizens of Israel are disciplined and most of them are and we will take the easing steps gradually as we have determined, but we will overcome the coronavirus completely
“We need the utmost national effort to vaccinate these [last] 570,000 people. Go get vaccinated, not just for your health but for all of our health. When they’re vaccinated, there’ll be no more need for lockdowns,” he says
Netanyahu welcomed the Coronavirus Cabinet's decision to approve the partial reopening of the economy for citizens who have been vaccinated, "People with green passports will be able to go to the movies, to soccer and basketball matches, and later to restaurants and on foreign flights, and those who don’t get vaccinated won’t be able to.”
“If those 570,000 people over 50 get vaccinated, it will be not only the last lockdown, we’ll be done with COVID, period," he says. "We’re leading the world on vaccines; we’ll be the first to emerge from the coronavirus.”